“We wish to give the criminal authorities an opportunity to properly and thoroughly investigate the matters contained in our clients’ statements regarding Mr. Pugh,” attorney Deano Ware said in the news release.

The teen’s mother and her lawyers have said that Pugh — who in recent weeks disappeared from the public eye and disconnected his phone and access to his social media accounts — gave cash, a cell phone and prom clothes to the young man, a recent graduate from the Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men in Detroit.

They also allege that Pugh, within the last year, sent disturbing text messages to the teen and met with him without the mother’s knowledge off school grounds, at times during school hours, something the mother says the Detroit school district should have prevented. Detroit Public Schools officials have said that they are investigating the matter.

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The mother and her attorney have not alleged that there was a sexual relationship. Pugh’s defenders have said that they never saw any sign of inappropriate relations between Pugh and any of the teens he mentored.

But the teen’s mother, whom the Free Press is not naming to protect the identity of the teen, said Saturday that an incident in Madison Heights involving her son and Pugh prompted the police report. She said she resented implications in news coverage that her motivation was to extract a cash settlement from Pugh.

Some legal experts and others have questioned why she went to lawyers before going to police.

“Everybody acts like we did something wrong. Everybody is worried about Mr. Pugh and not us, and not my son,” said the mother, standing with a teenage boy outside her home in Detroit on Saturday night.

“I’m getting all this harassment” about seeking a cash settlement, the woman said.

She said she first took her concerns to Detroit school officials, “and they didn’t do anything.” DPS officials did not immediately return a call for comment late Saturday.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for the family announced that the mother of the now 18-year-old intended to sue Pugh, the school, the school district and the city.

Pugh’s unexplained absence from the public eye — and city hall — has impacted his job. Emergency manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday stripped all powers from the Detroit City Council president as well as his $76,911 base pay. Pugh is allowed to bear the title of council president and even vote on issues at the table, but his vote will not count, a spokesman for Orr said. Orr cannot remove him from office under his interpretation of the state’s emergency manager law.

Supporters of Pugh, including former students who were in his mentorship program, the Charles Pugh Leadership Forum, said in a Free Press story published Saturday that allegations against him don’t match who they saw in or out of the classroom.

“Charles never interacted with the kids in an inappropriate way,” said Truevonte Whitsey, 17, who graduated from Frederick Douglass last month and said he had been in Pugh’s mentorship program for most of this school year.